


songbird singing in the dead of night

by peachmaisie



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-06 17:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14062284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachmaisie/pseuds/peachmaisie
Summary: Matt first heard her voice on a warm Tuesday afternoon.He was laying on his couch, nursing a particularly bad bruised rib back to some state of functionality. Claire had come round to check on him but nothing had been broken or needed stitches, a job well done on his part. Work had been slow as of late so Matt wasn’t too worried about being questioned for not going in. Foggy and Karen by now were used to not getting answers so they didn’t ask questions in the first place.With plans to go out that night and chase more leads, Matt had taken the out of character decision to relax. He was almost always doing something, staying busy was something he did better than most but even he could admit sometimes he worked himself close to death. It was only for a few hours, try to catch up on the sleep that he was severely lacking so he was at his best.It was only when he tried to drift to sleep that he heard it.





	songbird singing in the dead of night

Matt first heard her voice on a warm Tuesday afternoon.

He was laying on his couch, nursing a particularly bad bruised rib back to some state of functionality. Claire had come round to check on him but nothing had been broken or needed stitches, a job well done on his part. Work had been slow as of late so Matt wasn’t too worried about being questioned for not going in. Foggy and Karen by now were used to not getting answers so they didn’t ask questions in the first place.

With plans to go out that night and chase more leads, Matt had taken the out of character decision to relax. He was almost always doing something, staying busy was something he did better than most but even he could admit sometimes he worked himself close to death. It was only for a few hours, try to catch up on the sleep that he was severely lacking so he was at his best.

It was only when he tried to drift to sleep that he heard it.

_“Let me sleep, I am tired of my grief and I would like you, to love me, to love me, to love me.”_

When Matt’s senses picked things up the normal person couldn’t, it was stuff like sirens in the distance or people struggling in fights, awful things that propelled him into action. This could not have been more different. It wasn’t a call for help in darkness or a crisis waiting to happen, it was beautiful.

Matt opened his eyes and tried to focus on the source of the voice. It didn’t take very long at all to pinpoint the source of the singing as coming from the apartment above him. He was aware that someone had moved in there, the place had been empty for a while due to water damage and frankly Matt prefered there being no one up there. It gave them a view down onto his fire escape and god forbid someone ever see him up there suited up.

The woman had a voice like silk, smooth and gentle and felt like heaven to Matt’s delicate hearing. He could pick up each breathe between beautiful word, the rise and fall of her chest and the sway of her hair brushing against her skin. Painting images in his head of the people around him was not a new task for Matt, details of course were impossible to know without asking but a woman with a voice so appealing could never be anything but exquisite to him.

_“This is the night when these woods sigh, come with me. There are people who cannot speak without smiling.”_

He fell asleep with the strangers voice lulling him into pleasant dreams, the sound of gentle footsteps against the wooden floors and the smell of jasmine wafting off from her hair the kindest warning to any potential nightmares. It had been years since Matt had gone to sleep with a smile on his face but things no matter how rare could be found by the right person; his songbird above becoming a discoverer too.

* * *

The honeymoon period soon ended on account of Matt not understanding why songbird, as he had named her in his head, had decided to move into his crappy apartment building.

She wore expensive perfume, some days it felt as though the scent filled his apartment like a swimming pool and he was drowning it in. Matt could never pinpoint what the scent was, it was heady and made him light headed when she first applied it. Always to the pulse points first, her neck then her wrists, Matt could only assume the purpose was to drive men like him to the edge of desperation.

It wasn’t only perfume that songbird indulged in. The fabrics of her clothes, the food she bought were all high quality, fresh from the market. Matt knew that because he could detect the sounds of her heels anywhere, that and her heartbeat steady and loud, healthy amongst a city of people barely trudging along.

The point of all this being that she had too much money to have to live in a place like this. No one willingly moved there if they had a choice, Matt was paranoid enough to push whatever affections he’d gained in the passing week and decide that he should keep tabs on her. He might have had senses that most of the time prevented him from not being invasive but he tried not to make it a habit, with this though he didn’t feel quite as bad.

A lot of the time she was out of her apartment, after that first time of hearing her singing Matt didn’t catch it again for weeks. There were more pressing things he had to think about but she remained in the back of his mind. If he couldn’t focus while in the office then he’d lean back in his chair and listen to the city whirling like cogs and somehow, in amongst it all, Matt would always be able to pick up her heartbeat.

Foggy was the first to catch wind of something being different with Matt. There was the obvious stuff like how he was coming in every other day with new bruises and cuts but since he wouldn’t answer any questions about those, the second best thing was to target what was distracting him.

Working out what Matt was thinking was an impossible game but sometimes he’d give little things away. If there was one thing Foggy Nelson knew it was the face Matt made when he had someone on his brain. He in all his grand stoic expressions couldn’t hide the small but dopey smile that pulled on his lips.

“There’s a girl, isn’t there?” Foggy asked one night. It was late, Karen had already gone home but they had stayed at the office. The case they were working wasn’t particularly difficult and yet they stayed, it was an unspoken feeling between both of them that they liked it when it was just them. Karen was amazing and while neither would give her up for the world, there was something comforting about their dynamic when it was only them.

It was like being back in college again, where the world was simple and revolved around late night studying and drunken gallivants.

Matt turned his head in the direction of Foggy’s voice and frowned. They’d been sat in silence for a while, him reading his braille and Foggy fighting the internet connection while trying to do some research. It was peaceful, or it had been.

“A girl?” His frown deepened as Foggy scoffed and made some gesture with his hands, Matt was used to this kind of reaction but for once he truly didn’t know what the cause behind it was.

“Listen, just let me know if there’s someone because you haven’t had the best track record with women, Matt. I’ll get the life jacket out for when this inevitably sinks- not that I think it will! I mean-”

Foggy’s rambling was cut off by Matt’s chuckling once he finally caught on. He couldn’t deny it, his relationships worked out perfectly for the first two weeks or so but the ship eventually would catch fire. More often than not it was his own wrong doings that ruined things and he lived with that knowledge, he just hadn’t sunk as many ships as Foggy might have thought.

“There’s no girl.” He insisted before returning his hands to his braille display. Foggy took that as his out and didn’t question Matt any further, he’d learnt over the years that if Matt Murdock didn’t want you to know something then he’d go out of his way to make sure you didn’t. If there was a girl then he would tell him in his own time, but until then it was going to remain a mystery.

* * *

 

It was always the same song.

_“They would take me from your hand or they would try, they would try.”_

Matt could only picture how he would look to anyone watching him, walking around his apartment and, excuse the pun, blindly following in the footsteps echoing from above him. Without really focusing on what he was doing, in repeating the steps that this stranger took he ended up slowly waltzing around his apartment. She was dancing, light on her feet and far more carefree than the boxy movements Matt managed.  
  
He’d heard her speak for the first time that night. When singing her accent didn’t shine through as much as it did when she was talking, it had a certain amount of sharpness that wasn’t accounted for all the other times Matt had heard her. It was still like silk but something rougher underneath, an educated wit and snake sharp tongue.

Trying not to smile while listening to songbird essentially emasculated the man she was on the phone with was difficult. She did it with such class and backhanded humour that Matt only realised he was smiling into thin air after she’d hung up.

His apprehensions about her character were still there, something still felt slightly off but with each passing moment he spent with her he found himself becoming slowly more enchanted. The mystery was appealing, it wouldn’t take much at all to find out her name but there was something almost fairy tale about the whole thing.

Matt had never really been one for happily ever afters but maybe some people did actually deserve them. Perhaps, not everyone had to suffer to get there.

* * *

The nickname “choir boy” lasted a whole two weeks after Karen caught Matt singing to himself in his office. She told Foggy later on after he returned with coffee and the two shared school girl giggles over the whole thing as if it was scandalous.

When Karen asked what song he had been singing, Matt told her that it was just something he’d heard of the radio and had gotten stuck in his head. It wasn’t a lie, the full truth just wasn’t there.

Foggy insisted that Matt sing for real for them, something about how he’d only ever heard drunken attempts at belting out 80s pop from him. If his best friend suddenly had the voice of an angel then that was something he needed to hear, duets all week round it that was the case. Of course, Matt declined and told them to get back to work before stealing away one of the coffees brought back.

He had been a choir boy, once upon a time. They’d sang songs filled with hope and love, worship for a God without a name and hidden from sight. Matt smiled and hummed his stranger’s tune under his breath once more, his own personal hymn.

* * *

 

Songbird finally gained a name a few months into her moving above Matt’s apartment. His time couldn’t be spent purely listening in on her life so he only caught snippets here and there. They lived two separate and very different lives from what he had gathered, that was what made the time he could hear her clear as day so precious.

“Yes, this is Elektra Natchios speaking.” Matt’s ears twitched at the sound of her name. He hadn’t been actively listening in like his body seemed to do these days like second nature, yet another day was being spent nursing an injury and once more he was trying to catch up on sleep.

For the first time in a while he’d actually managed to pull himself into his bed instead of the couch, it wasn’t so much laziness as it was something gnawing away at his brain. It told him that the couch was fine, that he physically couldn’t make it across the room to his bed. He was yet to place a name on that feeling but whatever it was, it had been there for a while, ever since the accident.

The city was never quiet to him, there was always too much noise going on and focusing on whatever it was going on upstairs was a huge help. It also distracted him when that feeling in his head got stronger, that sadness echoing out through his bones. Finding solace in strangers wasn’t a completely new concept for Matt but he’d never felt quite so attached to one singular person.

It just so happened that the second he’d focused on what was going on in the apartment above him that she had gotten a call. It was difficult to think with the pounding headache he was battling with nothing but sheer determination but her name swam around him like the scent of her perfume.

Elektra.

It stood out in his head like a beacon, neon red lights pulsing in rhythm to his mouth testing out her name on his tongue. It wasn’t the name he was expecting and that made it all the more perfect for her. While Matt was not apart of Elektra’s world, she had become intertwined in his.

Her voice was sometimes the best part of his day. Matt’s day to day was putting on a role, the person people assumed him to be. At night he could claw out of that costume and become what must have been seen as the polar opposite. He went from one extreme to the next and even he had to admit that neither felt one hundred percent authentic. With Elektra, it was like he was neither. He was nothing at all, and that was surprisingly comforting.

Despite Elektra having no way of knowing that Matt had the ability to listen in on her life, he decided to tune out as she began to have the rest of her conversation. It was a respect thing, while they weren’t friends or even acquaintances for that matter she still deserved the opportunity to have privacy. That was a concept that Matt struggled with sometimes. His abilities could be used for good and in the long run they were, he didn’t always think about how people would feel if they were to learn he’d been listening in on their lives.

Instead he turned his attention back to the rest of his apartment block, it was better than letting in the rest of the city. It would be impossible to stay in bed if he heard everything that was going on out there so as much as he wanted to help, Matt knew if he didn’t sleep then he would be no help at all.

He fell asleep listening to a game show being watched a few floors down, the static-y playback lulling him into a light sleep. Elektra’s name remained burnt onto his tongue, a sweet sting that Matt liked a little too much.

* * *

“What are you doing?” Karen giggled over her beer. Foggy was staring across at Matt with a determined gaze, like he would either tackle him to the ground or kiss him, Karen was fine with seeing either.

Foggy lifted his finger up and without taking his eyes off of Matt, he reached out and lay his finger over Karen’s lips. Granted, she grabbed his finger and moved it away from her mouth but his point got across. He’d been staring across the table for about five minutes, which when you were drunk was either the longest or shortest amount of time imaginable.

“I’m trying to get into our dear Matthew’s mind.” Foggy swallowed and attempted to shake away the drunkenness as though he was a soaked dog. “He likes a girl, Karen. A girl, and he won’t tell me who it is. Imagine that, us, his bestest friends, not knowing who’s pants he’s trying to get into.” 

“I’m not trying to get into anyones pants.” Matt’s attention had been taken by a bickering starting by the bar but was drawn back to reality by Foggy’s words. It was a Saturday night and the obvious place to go was Josie’s, to go to any other bar would feel like betrayal. The drinks might not have been perfect and the plumping left much to be desired but it was home.

Foggy scoffed and Karen once more giggled against the neck of her beer bottle. These were her favourite nights, when it was the three of them together without the sense of something dreadful hanging over their shoulders.

“Is it true though? Do you like a girl?” Karen asked and her heart fluttered.

Matt opted for taking a sip of his beer before answering. It had been let go of for a few weeks, not out of kindness but he assumed that Foggy thought he could catch him in something. Maybe a brief mention of a woman’s name he didn’t recognise or a quick glimpse of some sexy message on Matt’s phone. When his tactics didn’t work the next plan had to take place, get Matt plastered and get him to confess then.

It had always been assumed that he was a player. That girls came lining up outside his door begging for a taste, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Matt was good at being charming, he could get a woman’s interest but the second he would open up a little they would bolt. He never blamed them, the blind man with deep rooted Catholic guilt and the murdered father- it wasn’t exactly a prince charming kind of deal.

“I...I don’t like her.” The simple acknowledgement had Foggy almost sending his bottle flying across the room as he made a wild gesture towards Karen. Matt held back from grabbing it and instead Karen, grinning manically to herself made a dive and caught it before it fell off the table.

“Her! Who is her! That’s awful grammar but you can excuse it for now!” Foggy exclaimed, his voice gaining an octave or two.

“Someone in my apartment building.” Matt and being vague were a match made in heaven. However, if he wanted to get with this girl then this perfect pair needed to break up. It had been years since Matt had talked about dating, then again he was never the first person to bring it up as that had always been Foggy.

Karen raised her bottle and Foggy followed suit, Matt waited until a soft hand wrapped around his and raised his bottle for him.

“A toast to this woman?” She suggested and Matt resisted the urge to down the rest of his beer before she could finish her speech. He hadn’t lied, an accomplishment considering how often he did for their benefit. It was true, he didn’t like her but that was more because he didn’t know how he felt. The whole situation was strange. “May Matt get the courage to ask her out on a date and may she say yes!”

“And may he give us all the details after...not those details though. I caught enough of that in college.” Foggy downed the rest of his drink while Karen almost spat hers out, Matt sat across from them with a tipsy grin on his face.

* * *

He wasn’t eager to find out, but Matt was mildly convinced that Hell’s Kitchen was hotter than Hell could ever be. The air was sticky, everything was. It was the kind of heat that made it difficult to breathe, a warm hand clenched around your throat and definitely not in the sexy way. There was nothing sexy about how hot it was, it was borderline excruciating for Matt.

Everything had been done to cool down his apartment, all the windows were open and he’d done his best to place fans around in all the hottest spots but it felt more like the hot air was being pushed around. The outfit of the week was shorts and no shirt, there was no point when Matt knew he was just going to sweat through whatever he put on.

It didn’t get any cooler at night. If anything it felt worse, being in bed simply felt as though any second he was going to suffocate. Getting rid of the blankets and pillows didn’t help, Matt briefly considered sleeping on the floor as at least it would be cool. Eventually though he made up his mind and decided that sleep wasn’t going to be an option.

That was how he ended up sat on his fire escape.

It can’t have been any later than eleven, he could hear street lamps buzzing and the night life starting to really pick up. Everything was so much louder now that he was outside but at least there was a breeze, some kind of relief in the sea of heat. Despite how loud it was for him there was also something peaceful about it, the wind on his skin and the metal of the railing cold beneath his fingertips. Things could be worse.

_“This is the sound of love's marching band and how they hold you like a gun. And how I sing you like a song I heard when I was young and buried for a night like this.”_

Matt’s head snapped up as though he’d heard a gunshot. Elektra’s voice never failed to dazzle him, to catch his attention amongst all the sound rushing around him. It had been another few weeks since he’d last heard her sing, the same song once again. He had been tempted to look up the lyrics and try and gain some understanding as to why she loved it so much, but he didn’t.

In some way he hoped that if he were to ever speak to her, that on said day she would explain it to him herself. Matt smiled weakly to himself at the thought before leaning his head back against the railing.

“Having fun down there?” The singing stopped and Matt’s immediate reaction was to go for his glasses that were laying beside his thigh. He fumbled grabbing them and putting them on but once he’d done so, he turned his head in the direction of the voice.

He would recognise it anywhere, in the depths of the ocean or in a crowd of hundreds. It had been his main source of escape for months now, a little hideout from the lives he lead. Having her speak directly to him though? That was completely different, it was personal and Matt briefly considered excusing himself back indoors. He didn’t, couldn’t even if he really wanted to.

Matt looked in Elektra’s direction, he could hear the creaking of the window sill which indicated she was leaning on it, looking out at him. When she’d first moved in he had been worried she would catch him down there but he wasn’t worried now. He chuckled awkwardly and smiled, keeping a close check on Elektra’s heart. It was loud and steady, it didn’t falter when he put his glasses on and that was certainly new for him.

“It’s better than roasting in my apartment.” Matt replied and Elektra hummed softly in agreement.

“It is rather warm, you don’t enjoy it?” Elektra didn’t mind the heat at all, in fact she’d dealt with much hotter places. Hell’s Kitchen wasn’t top of the list, wasn’t the top of any for that matter. It was utterly average in so many ways, and for once she liked that. “I think it’s wonderful. Everything is so...alive”

Finding Matt had been a total accident. She just so happened to glance out at the city and out of the corner of her eye, there he was. He was sat on his fire escape, smiling to himself like a mad man. A total accident, a nice one at that since he was so lovely on the eyes.

Hell’s Kitchen was a lonely place for Elektra. She’d decided to move there on her own accord, an escape from the life she had built for herself and proceeded to tear down. That was something she was awfully good at, tearing things down till nothing remained.

“What was that song? The one you were singing?” The words came out before Matt had time to consider them. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he’d heard Elektra from down there since her window was open but it might come across as creepy. If that was the case then he wouldn’t listen again, Matt had plenty of people in the apartment complex essentially blacklisted from his ears after stuff he’d heard.  
  
If Elektra was anyone else, then he might have heard her heart pick up or her face flood with heat. She would have become embarrassed even if she didn’t outwardly express that, but she wasn’t anyone. Her heart stayed steady as she tilted her head ever so slightly and smiled, a smile he was certain was as lovely and sharp as her voice.

“You were listening?”

Matt had to bite back a laugh. He’d never been great at keeping himself on the downlow, lying was not exactly his strong suit even considering how much he did it. It was a little on the nose but he stopped himself from confessing everything there and then, instead taking a lighter route.

“I caught a little bit, you have a beautiful voice.” Even then, Elektra’s body gave no signs of being flustered. It occurred to Matt that maybe he was listening to the wrong things, this sort of stuff worked with others but she wasn’t someone on the street or a close friend. She was right in front of him in all her beautiful and gloriously intriguing nature and listening to her heartbeat wouldn’t give any of those details away.

Words had more power than most people gave them. The body gave away secrets but you could learn so much more by what a person decided to share, language was powerful and was what made her so appealing in the first place. She sang a song about wanting to be loved, wanting to sleep away all the sadness and both were things that Matt felt to the highest degree.

“I’ll tell you over a drink.” There was no “how does that sound?” or “if you’d like.” With Elektra there was a clear yes or no, she didn’t play games and whatever mild interest she had in the man perched below her window as though he were prince and she the princess, that could easily be flushed away. There was something about the man that she found interesting, it was the only reason she humoured him in the first place.

That and he was nice to look at, though there were plenty of pretty people in the world. Interesting people though? They came few and far between.

“Tell me your name first.” Matt smiled as Elektra did, all teeth bared and sharp.

“Elektra.”

“Matt.” Elektra’s eyes flickered from his glasses down to the end of his bare toes, taking in each little detail of the story his body told. She was interested as to why a blind man with a seemingly innocent face had scars littered across his body, some deeper and newer than others. He hadn’t tried to hide them upon hearing her speak so the story either wasn’t interesting or he wasn’t going to stop her from asking questions.

“Come on then, Matthew.” As he’d done for months and would continue to do forever, Matt pulled himself up and followed after her voice.

**Author's Note:**

> the song elektra sings is "the wisp sings" by winter aid!
> 
> check me out on tumblr at ["maggiemurdock"](http://maggiemurdock.tumblr.com/) and on [ patreon](https://www.patreon.com/peachmaisie) !!


End file.
